1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a cassette loading mechanism and, more particularly, to a cassette loading mechanism for use on a mechanical deck of front-loading type based on a compact and light-weight video recording and/or reproducing apparatus of linear skating type built in a consumer-use video camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, stationary-type video tape recorders are large in size and heavy even if they use a small-sized recording medium such as an 8-mm tape cassette.
Use of a recording and/or reproducing apparatus built in a consumer-use, small-sized 8-mm video camera or the like makes it possible to fabricate a small-sized, light-weight video tape recorder. However, most recording and/or reproducing apparatuses used on existing 8-mm video cameras such as one mentioned above are of a pop-up, linear skating type in which a tape cassette is loaded from the top of a mechanical deck with a resting surface of the tape cassette held horizontally (for example, a linear skating device of the pop-up type is disclosed in European Patent Publication No. EP0400944, A2 published on Dec. 5, 1990).
However, as for the recording and/or reproducing apparatuses of the stationary type used along with a television monitor at home, the front-loading type is more widely accepted than the pop-up type because of ease of handling of tape cassettes.
Also, since the conventional front-loading-type recording and/or reproducing apparatuses are integrally provided with a mechanism which moves a tape cassette first horizontally and then vertically, it has been impossible to apply small-sized, light-weight linear skating mechanisms (as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,706,141 and 4,796,115 for example) to such apparatuses.